The Business News Week Ahead

For the future of global monetary policy, the week's most important indicators will be on inflation: Germany will post the first definitive reading on March on Tuesday, followed on Wednesday by March reports from France, Italy and the Eurozone as a whole. Switzerland and Korea will post March consumer prices on Thursday and Friday, respectively. If readings exceed expectations, central bankers will be out in force explaining away the pressure as one-time anomalies and/or base-effect wonders. Germany will also open March's labor data with the country's unemployment rate on Wednesday that will be followed on Friday by the March employment report from the US where even greater improvement on top of February's surge is the expectation. The only major sentiment report will be posted on Tuesday with the US consumer confidence report though consumer data in general will be heavy, starting with retail sales from Japan also on Tuesday, then on Wednesday with French consumer goods consumption and Thursday with retail sales from both Germany and Switzerland. Manufacturing data will include South Korean and Japanese industrial production, Japan's quarterly Tankan survey, China's CFLP and also Caixan diffusion indexes and the ISM report from the US. Note that GDP data from the UK on Wednesday will be a revision; also note that times for both the Eurozone and UK move forward on Sunday, March 28.